Not sure how to take this article - "inventing" the iphone is a silly thing to say. Even sillier to argue about. It's apple's product, yes they "invented" that. They also "invented" the iphone 6.
Did they pioneer and invent every piece of technology contained in the iphone? No. Is there anything in an iphone that doesn't, didn't exist prior to the iphone's release? Really really doubt it. Did they slap it all together and call it an iphone? Yup.
This is more an argument of semantics than anything else. It's like a reddit argument between two mainstream media outlets.